A Blog by R. Wallace

Tag Archives: Readability.com

I usually spend most of my time on the internet going through my RSS feeds on Google Reader. Reader has a great feature called Send to at the bottom of each post which allows you to send the current article to a list of predefined sites or you can define custom sites to send the article to.

Send to Predefined sites

The included list of predefined sites offers plenty of options, but it is missing entries for Readability.com. I’ve used Twitter, Tumblr and Posterous before, but lately I find myself only using Readability since I’m able to send the article to my Kindle.

In order to add the entries just click on “create custom link” and fill in the box with the following and click Save when done. I created two links, one for Read Later and the other for Read Now. You can add both or just the Read Later.

The READ NOW and READ LATER entries will open a new window/tab which will require an extra step to either activate the reader mode or save it for later.

First, lets take a look at READ NOW. Once the new window/tab opens you will see the original article with a toolbar at the top with the option to switch to “Readability View”. I contacted the Readability Team about this behavior and was told the following (which seem fair):

The reason we show the page first and have you click through to the Readability view is that we don’t want to deprive the publisher of any page views. We’re not looking to infringe on anyone’s copyrights or step on any toes, so we figure that showing you the page as is first is the best way to go. We are sorry if this is an inconvenience.

If you have any more questions or comments, just let us know.

Thanks,

The Readability Team

I would like to thank “The Readability Team” for their quick response to my question.

Page displayed by selecting READ NOW

Next, lets take a look at READ LATER. Selecting this entry will open a new window/tab and will ask you to confirm adding the article. Once you confirm by selecting “Yes, save to my Reading List” it will redirect to the original article.

Since I got my Kindle (Kindle 3) I’ve been using Readability to send articles and post from the sites I frequent over to my kindle. Readability is a great product similar to Instapaper and Read it Later, but it adds a few features specific for Kindle users.

Readability converts web page into a clean and distraction free reading content. At the moment it has extensions for Chrome and Firefox (Bookmarklet can be used for other browsers) and a great mobile web app for iOS and Android browsers. iOS and Android apps are in the works.

On January 10th Readability announced that it was now a free service (before that you would only get your last 30 entries for free) which is great for those who wish to use it as a filing cabinet for articles.

Readability Extension

The Readability extension gives you three options: 1) Read Now, 2) Read Later, or 3) Send to Kindle. Option 1 and 2 will send to output to your reading list on Readability.com with option 1 giving you the Readability version of the article immediately. Option 3 work pretty much like Read Later but will send the output the your kindle email address. I prefer to use option 2 and have set up Readability to send me a digest of all my articles at 4 a.m. which is set up like a periodical subscription which is replaced each day. The digest includes a neat table of contents on you Kindle so you can browse through your saved items.

Here is what an article would look like after being sent to Readability.com.